Closing the chapter of connections between Britain and Zimbabwe, the last flight of British Airways from Harare reached at Heathrow last night. BA152 was the last flight on the route which the carrier said it was suspending because it had been a loss making for a long time. The British Airways has finally called off its services to Zimbabwe.

The economy of Zimbabwe is in freefall and country's tourism has also been experiencing a continuous downfall. But in Zimbabwe the move is being taken as part of the efforts of London to cut off the regime of Robert Mugabe, despite the fact that British Airways is a business firm.

Today, no reference of the milestone is made by the official media of Zimbabwe but the independent Zimonline website published that safety issues over an IATA audit could see the state owned airline barred from operating to the Europe.

Quoting an internal Air Zimbabwe report, it said, "If this succeeds the airline will be barred from flying to Europe and therefore the United Kingdom government would have won the battle to stop air services between the two nations".

The first British carrier to provide services on the London-Harare route was Imperial Airways, precursor of British Airways, in the year 1932, when the city was popularly known as Salisbury.

In 1965, British Airways suspended its services after the declaration of UDI by Rhodesia. The services were resumed when the government of Ian Smith fell.